Catalytic naphtha reforming is an important industrial process. During the naphtha reforming process, mainly low-octane straight chain alkanes (paraffins), with 6-10 carbon atoms, are reformed into molecules having branched alkanes (isoparaffins) and cyclic naphthenes, which are then partially dehydrogenated to produce high-octane aromatic hydrocarbons such as benzene, toluene and xylenes (BTX) in the reformate. The naphtha feedstock used for catalytic reforming contains naphthenic hydrocarbons, paraffinic hydrocarbons and aromatic hydrocarbons of different carbon numbers. The major reactions in naphtha reforming process include dehydrogenation of naphthenes, dehydrocyclization of paraffins, isomerization of paraffins and hydrocracking. The chemical reactions in reforming process occur in presence of a catalyst and a high partial pressure of hydrogen. In a typical reforming process, naphtha is processed over conventional acidic reforming catalysts which results in undesired products.
In the catalytic naphtha reforming process, the C8 aromatic isomers formed i.e., ethyl benzene (EB), para-xylenes (p-X), meta-xylenes (m-X), and ortho-xylenes (o-X) appear in thermodynamic equilibrium in the product. Conventionally, the ethyl benzene formed in the reforming reactor takes an idle ride in the post reforming downstream p-xylene recovery unit, thus occupying unit capacity and leading to undesired operating cost.
There is, therefore, a need for a naphtha reforming process. Further, there is a need to improve the yield of benzene (C6) and toluene (C7) during the naphtha reforming process. Furthermore, there is a need to reduce the undesired operating cost of the p-xylene recovery unit.